Baseboard scrubber



June 27, 1961 c, J, BRADLEY 2,989,763

BASEBOARD SCRUBBER Filed April 1, 1960 '4 27 22 FIGURE I. 4

FIGURE 5.

INVENTOR.

FIGURE 4. CORTEZ J.BRADLEY.

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 2,989,763 BASEBOARD SCRUBBER Cortez J. Bradley, 4219 Chestnut, Kansas City, Mo. Filed Apr. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 19,253 1 Claim. (CI. 15-50) This invention relates to a scrubber for scrubbing upright baseboards adjacent rooms and walls of a building.

Heretofore, particularly in otfice buildings where there are many stories having uniform baseboards adjacent to the respective floors and walls thereof, the janitor and maid services have become a tremendous task for scrubbing the baseboards. Floor scrubbing machines are used for the floors but the janitors or maids usually have to kneel on the floor and use hand brushes or hand cloths for the many tiresome and wearisome hours of scrubbing the baseboards after the floors are scrubbed with machines specifically designed for scrubbing floors.

My baseboard scrubber has a rotary brush with a diameter substantially equal to the height of a baseboard and is supported to scrub in an upright plane with the lower rotating surface thereof substantially touching the adjacent floor line of the baseboard. A gear reduction unit is located in a housing and the brush is shielded in a housing extended therefrom to prevent soiling the adjacent wall. The gear reduction housing is secured to one end of an electric motor and the housing and motor are supported on rollers rotatably attached thereto and located to support the rotating scrubbing surface of the brush in an upright plane with the lower rotating edge of the brush substantially on the floor adjacent to the baseboard. A supply tank is supported on a handle pivoted to the baseboard scrubber. A flexible hose with a control valve is connected between the supply tank and a conduit located in the housing. The conduit leads into a liquid distributor of the rotating brush for feeding liquid with a detergent therein to the rotating brush.

An advantage of my baseboard scrubber is that one person can use it to thoroughly scrub a given length of baseboard, with ease, in a fraction of the time heretofore required by other methods for the same given length of baseboard. The person operating the scrubber will also be able to properly rest between working hours so that he or she will feel freshly rested for another work hour period. It is much easier to keep employees when they are satisfied.

This invention and specification will be more fully understood with reference to the accompanying drawing and the scope of the appended claim.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a view of a longitudinal elevation of my baseboard scrubber illustrated supported on an adjacent floor to a baseboard with the scrubbing brush positioned against the baseboard. The floor, baseboard and wall are shown in fragmentary sectional form. The liquid supply tank and handle are shown in fragmentary form.

FIGURE 2 is a view illustrating an end elevation of the brush scrubbing face, brush shield, and supporting rollers.

FIGURE 3 is a view illustrating the back of the rotary brush and the distributor for feeding the liquid to the brush.

FIGURE 4 is a view shown in section taken on lines 44 of FIGURE 1 illustrating the baseboard scrubber supported on rollers and resting on a fragment of a floor shown in section. The transmission is illustrated by a fragment of the support wall thereof being broken away. A liquid tube is illustrated for conducting liquid to the distributor of the brush.

FIGURE 5 is a view shown in section taken on lines 5-5 of FIGURE 3 and illustrates the distributor on the brush.

My baseboard scrubber 6 is provided with a rotary brush 7 having a diameter adapted to be substantially equal to the height of a baseboard 3. The rotatable hub 9 of the scrubbing brush rotates the brush 7 on a horizontal axis with the scubbing surface 10 of the brush 7 being in an upright plane. The lower rotating surface of the brush 7 is substantially level with the lower rotating surfaces of the supporting rollers 11, 12 and 13.

The supporting rollers 11 and 12 rotatably support a housing 14 and the supporting roller 13 rotatably supports one end of the electric motor 15. The rollers 11, 12 and 13 are rotatably mounted and spaced from the brush surface 10 to travel in a parallel horizontal direction with the scrubbing surface 10 of the brush 7.

The electric motor 15 is provided with a shaft 16 of suflicient length to receive pinion 17, gear 18, and the hub 9 of the rotary brush 7. The pinion 17 is secured to the shaft 16 for rotation therewith. The gear 18 and hub 9 are loosely mounted to rotate on the shaft 16.

A counter shaft 19 is spaced above the motor shaft 16 and has gear 20 and pinion 21 secured thereto. The gear 20 meshes with pinion 17 and the pinion 21 meshes with gear 18 making a transmission of reduced revolutions of the brush 7 relative to the motor shaft 16.

A gear housing 22 contains the reduction gears 17, 18, 20 and 21, and end portions of the counter shaft 19 are mounted to rotate in walls 23 and 24 of the gear housing 22.

The supporting rollers 11 and 12 are rotatably supported on pins 25 and 26 respectively secured in the spaced walls 23 and 24. Wall 23 is secured to the motor. A shield 27 projects over the brush 7 from wall 24 and is spaced around the major portion of the rotating brush 7 to collect liquid therefrom and conduct it downwardly to the supporting floor 28 of the baseboard scrubber 6.

The rotary brush 7 is provided with a distributor 29 located on the back 30 of the brush 7. Openings 31 are provided through the back 30, and the flange 32 slopes outwardly toward the openings to conduct liquid detergent to the rotary brush 7 by centrifugal force.

A tube 33 leads from the top of the housing 22, therethrough around the gears 17, 18, 20 and 21 and into the area within the flange 32. A flexible hose 34 with a valve 35 conducts liquid detergent from a supply tank 36 to the tube 33 at the top of the gear housing 22, and the liquid detergent flows through the tube 33 and the distributor 29 to the brush 7.

A handle 37 supports the supply tank 36 and has one end of it pivoted to either side bracket 38 of the electric motor for alternate directions of travel.

I claim:

An electric motor having at least a normal horizontal cylindrical shell with end faces, and a projected horizontal drive shaft from one face thereof, an end plate secured flatwise against the end face of the electric motor cylindrical shell having the projected drive shaft, a pair of supporting rollers, a pair of pins, a second plate parallel with said end plate and spaced sufllciently therefrom by said pins to receive said supporting rollers thereon between said end plate and said second plate, a rotatable brush having the brushing face thereof parallel with the end and second plates and spaced facing away from the said plates, said rotatable brush being rotatable on the end portion of the projected drive shaft and located beyond the opposite face of the second plate from the face located next to said rollers, transmission gears, a counter shaft, said counter shaft being parallel with said drive shaft and spaced to receive some of said transmission gears, said transmission gears being located between said end and second plates and driveable from said drive shaft to said counter shaft and drive said rotatable brush at a reduced speed relative to the drive shaft speed, a shell secured to said end plate and second plate and spaced over the major peripheral surface of said rotatable brush adapted to function as a guard, the lower portion of said shell being open for the lower peripheral portion of the rotatable brush to be aligned with the lower portion of the supporting rollers and touch a supporting floor, a third pin, said third pin having one end thereof secured to the opposite end face of the cylindrical motor housing, a third supporting roller, said third supporting roller being mounted on 10 4 said third pin and aligned with said pair of supporting rollers to provide mobile movement transverse to the drive shaft of the motor means, and said means having a scrubbing fluid eonductible to said rotatable brush.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

